Waking Hearts (17 page)

“Yes. No. That’s not what I mean. Knowing what’s important to a person. You notice things.”

He shrugged.

“It’s a good trait,” she said quietly. She held out the glass. “Drink?”

He took it, just to be able to put his lips were hers had been.

Yeah, he was kind of pathetic at this point.

“You and the kids should stay here until this is all over.”

She looked uncomfortable at the thought.

“I know it’s not ideal,” he said. “I realize the kids would be better off in their own house with all their own stuff. Especially right now. But this place is big, and it’s secure. Think of it like… a vacation.”

“A vacation?” She looked over her shoulder at the giant house. “I can clean my house in a little under three hours if I’m in a hurry. How many bathrooms does this place have?”

“Five if you count the barn. And you’re not cleaning a single one.”

Her back went up. “If I’m staying here, I’m gonna pick up after my kids.”

“The kids can pick up after themselves, and I have a cleaning lady to do the bathrooms.”

“I can do the cleaning while I’m here, Ollie.”

“And put Vicky out of work so you can prove a point and run yourself ragged?” He raised an eyebrow. “I’ll let you cook, but that’s it and only because I’m crap at it.”

She snorted. “You’ll
let
me, will you?”

“Know what?” He banged the jelly jar down between them. “Someone needs to make sure you take care of yourself.”

“I’m fine.”

“You’re exhausted. In fact—” He stood and held out a hand. “Come on. Bedtime.”

Allie scowled. “You’re not my father.”

“Thank God for that.” When she didn’t move, he leaned down and put his shoulder under her belly, lifting her in one quick sweep.

“Ollie!” she hissed as he walked into the house. “Put me down.”

“It’s been a hell of a week. We’re all going to bed. You. Me. The kids. The dog. Everyone.”

As if on cue, Murtry followed them into the house and slumped by the fireplace in the front room with a low groan.

Allie clearly didn’t share the dog’s need to relax.

“Oliver Campbell, I do not need you to tell me—”

“Which bedroom did you pick?”

She stubbornly refused to answer him. “I’m not going to wiggle around and make a fool out of myself,” she said. “Just put me down.”

“I’m guessing…” He walked up the stairs and down the right hallway, pushing open a door at the end. “Yep. Yellow bedroom with the four-poster bed. Yaya’s favorite.”

“Put me down!” she said again just as quietly. Just as angrily.

“Okay.” He walked over and dumped her on the mattress, careful not to bang her head on the old posts. “Good night. You know where the bathroom is, right?”

“If you think being a caveman is charming, you’re very mistaken.”

She sounded like a pissed-off kitten. He laughed.

“I don’t care about being charming,” Ollie said. “I care about you having a little less stress in your life and getting more sleep. I’ll see you in the morning.”

He walked out and shut the door before he did something really stupid like try to crawl in bed with her. She’d most likely hurt him if he tried. He walked down the hall and saw the bathroom door crack open.

Kevin was standing at the sink, brushing his teeth. Without a word, he held his hand out for a fist bump. Ollie silently met the boy’s knuckles, then went downstairs to lock up the house.

He wasn’t going to lie. It felt good to order her around. But only because he finally had an excuse to take care of her. Allie was used to doing everything on her own, and she was damn good at it. But it was about time she learned that other people could and would help her out when she was at the end of her rope.

And if that made him a caveman, he could live with that.

HIS alarm went off at six a.m. Ollie rubbed his hand over his face and was tempted to go back to sleep. But there were four children in the house, and all of them needed to get dressed, fed, and onto the bus before he could go back to sleep. He rolled out of bed and pulled on some pants and a shirt that was mostly clean.

He tapped on the doors and cracked them open when no one answered. He’d guessed right on which room Kevin had picked, which was his old one from high school, which he’d decorated in car posters. The boy was sitting on the edge of the bed, scrubbing his eyes with the heel of his hand.

“Hey,” Ollie said. “Think you and me can get all the little ones off to school without waking your mom up?”

Kevin didn’t say anything, but he gave Ollie a thumbs-up.

“Cool. You hop in the shower, and I’ll go make breakfast.”

“Okay,” he said with a yawn. “I’ll go wake up Thing One and Thing Two.”

“Be nice.”

Ollie stepped into the hall only to almost trip over a fuzzy-haired princess rubbing her eyes. Loralie held up her arms, and Ollie picked her up and brought her downstairs. He let Murtry out to do his business, then walked to the massive kitchen and opened the fridge, glad that Vicky had just gone shopping. He’d have to send her on another trip that afternoon, because he’d seen how those boys ate.

Loralie seemed to have no desire to let go of his neck, so he grabbed what he could with one hand and had to make a few trips.

He could cook eggs and toast with one arm. Sure he could. Bacon was probably a bad idea though.

With some effort, he got the coffee started and was even working on cracking the eggs when Kevin came into the kitchen.

“There she is.” He moved to grab Loralie, but she grabbed tighter on to Ollie’s neck. “Come on, Lala. We need to get you dressed for school.”

“I want Ollie to get me dressed.”

“He’s fixing breakfast. Let me get you dressed.”

“Nooo,” she whined, but Ollie kissed the top of her head and untangled her.

“Let go, baby girl. I’ll make you eggs while Kevin gets you dressed.”

With a pout, she let go. Chris and Mark stumbled into the kitchen and went directly for the fridge.

“Sit,” he barked. “I’m making breakfast.”

“But I don’t like eggs,” Chris said.

“You do today.”

He sighed and laid his head down on the table. “Okay.”

“Ollie?” Mark said quietly. “Can I help?”

“Can you go let Murtry in? I think he’s scratching at the door.”

“Okay.”

Juggle this task. Don’t forget that one. He couldn’t have done it without Kevin’s help. But at seven thirty the kids were fed and the five of them headed to the bus stop a half mile from Allie’s house, Ollie managing to just barely squeeze into her minivan with all four kids piled in back.

“Backpacks!” Mark yelled just as they arrived at the bus stop.

Kevin’s eyes went wide. “They’re all at the house.”

“Shit.”

“That’s a bad word,” Loralie lisped. “You’ll get in trouble if you say that at school.”

“Don’t I know it,” Ollie said. “Okay, you guys get on the bus. I’ll grab the backpacks—”

“They’ll all be on the hooks by the door in the kitchen,” Kevin said. “They should be packed, ’cause we left them there on Friday.”

“I’ll grab them and drive them to school. They might be a little late, but they’ll be there.”

“What are we going to eat for lunch?” Chris asked.

“Shit!”

“You said it again, Ollie!” Loralie yelped.

“Don’t tell your mom. And… I’ll bring lunch too. With the backpacks. I’ll make sandwiches or something.”

He could see the dust from the school bus coming down the road. “Okay, you guys better get out of the car.” There were already three or four kids gathered and peering curiously at the large man in the minivan. Ollie got out and helped Loralie unbuckle her booster seat, then the four kids tumbled out of the van and onto the bus just before it sped off again.

It was only seven thirty a.m. and Ollie was already winded.

“How does she do this?”

He drove to Allie’s house and used her key to grab the four backpacks from the kitchen, along with two athletic bags that smelled suspiciously like his high school football locker. They’d been opened and rifled through, which pissed Ollie off all over again.

He took a deep breath and zipped them shut. He wasn’t sure what was in them, but judging from the smell, they were used regularly. Once he had everything he thought the kids might need for school, he threw it all in the minivan and headed back to his house.

He was halfway through four mangled PB&Js when he heard the door slam on the second floor. Feet skidded down the hallway and into the kitchen.

“What time is it and where are my children?” Allie stared at him with wide eyes. “What are you doing?”

“Making lunch. The kids are already on the bus, but their backpacks are in the car and I have to make their lunches.”

She glanced at the counter with a frown. “You’re making lunch?”

“I don’t have any fruit, so it’s sandwiches and chips, but I’ll ask Vicky to pick up some apples or something when she goes to the store today.”

Why did the bread keep tearing? Was he buying the wrong kind of peanut butter? Was it expired? Could peanut butter expire? He’d never noticed because he only used it to give the dog his pills.

He probably better not tell Allie that.

“You’re making them lunch.” Her voice had a distinctly watery sound, so he turned.

“I told you you needed to sleep more.”

“Ollie.” She walked over in her pj’s and wrapped her arms around his waist. “Thank you.”

He wanted to hug her back, but he was pretty sure his hands were sticky, though he had no idea how the peanut butter got everywhere like that. “You’re welcome.”

“Let me…” She attempted to take the knife from him. “I’ll finish. You have strawberry jelly in your beard.”

“That’s probably from Loralie at breakfast. She insisted on sharing her toast.”

Damn, she was beautiful like that, with her hair all fuzzy and piled on the top of her head, her smile crooked and sweet. He really wanted to kiss her.

“You made them breakfast.”

“I’m not helpless. I can make eggs. Anyone can scramble an egg.”

She wet a paper towel and cleaned off the spot of strawberry jelly before she tugged him down by the beard and laid a kiss on his cheek.

“Sweet man,” she murmured. “Chris can’t have peanut butter. There’s a boy in his class who’s allergic. Do you have any turkey?”

Totally worth it. Ollie stood frozen in his kitchen, still feeling her soft lips against his cheek.

Lack of sleep. Crazy rush. Shamefully cold cup of coffee reheated twice and
still
not drank.

Totally worth it all for that sleepy kiss.

“Ollie?”

“Huh?”

“Do you have any turkey or bologna or anything else we could use for Chris’s sandwich? He can’t have peanut butter.”

He filed the information away for future reference and went to the fridge. “Um… I have some leftover tri-tip?”

“Lucky boy,” she said, holding her hand out. “Tri-tip it is.”

He handed her the meat and went to look for some paper bags he remembered Jena leaving over one time. He found them in the pantry and set them on the counter next to the sandwich bags.

“How do you do this every day?” he asked, watching her cute little ass dance around his kitchen in her sleep shorts as she finished her kids’ lunches.

Yeah, he’d get up early to see that in the morning.

“You get used to it,” she said. “And Kevin’s a great helper.”

“I couldn’t have survived this morning without him.”

She looked over her shoulder and narrowed her eyes. “Scheming against me, huh?”

“Your oldest son and I have similar goals. He thinks you need to rest more too.”

“Hmm.”

He grabbed another mug and poured her a cup of coffee. “I called the school and explained about the house and the backpacks.”

“Thank you.”

“Told them you and the kids were staying with me for a while.”

Allie sighed. “I wish you hadn’t done that.”

“Why?”

“One, I don’t know how long we’re staying here. And two, do you know that Eula Quinn is the secretary there?”

“I thought the voice sounded familiar.”

“Everyone in town is going to know I’m staying here by the end of the school day.”

“And?”

She blushed. “People talk. That’s all.”

“Ignore people.”

“Easy to say when you’ve never been in the middle of nasty rumors, Ollie.”

She’d been the grist of the rumor mill before. Once, when she graduated high school pregnant with Joe’s baby, and again when her husband left her high and dry just as she’d pulled a meat loaf out of the oven.

Which told you everything you needed to know about Joe Russell, in Ollie’s opinion, because Allie’s meat loaf was awesome.